A blog for our museum located in the beautiful city of Roanoke, Virginia, maintained as a special look into some of the exciting events and exhibitions that we have to offer. Visit our website as well for any information not provided in the tabs above at www.vahistorymuseum.org!

Month: June 2014

On this day in 1776, John Adams wrote to his wife, Abigail Adams, of the tremendous pressure he was feeling from the Continental Congress to perform as a leader. He informs her that June “has been the busyest Month, that I ever saw.” This is unsurprising, considering the increasing rapidity with which the hopeful Congress was approaching the date of their declaration of independence.

June 26. 1776

I have written so seldom to you, that I am really grieved at the Recollection. I wrote you, a few Lines, June 2 and a few more June 26. These are all that I have written to you, since this Month began. It has been the busyest Month, that ever I saw. I have found Time to inclose all the News papers, which I hope you will receive in due Time.

Our Misfortunes in Canada, are enough to melt an Heart of Stone. The Small Pox is ten times more terrible than Britons, Canadians and Indians together. This was the Cause of our precipitate Retreat from Quebec, this the Cause of our Disgraces at the Cedars. — I dont mean that this was all. There has been Want, approaching to Famine, as well as Pestilence. And these Discouragements seem to have so disheartened our Officers, that none of them seem to Act with Prudence and Firmness.

But these Reverses of Fortune dont discourage me. It was natural to expect them, and We ought to be prepared in our Minds for greater Changes, and more melancholly Scenes still. It is an animating Cause, and brave Spirits are not subdued with Difficulties.

Amidst all our gloomy Prospects in Canada, We receive some Pleasure from Boston. I congratulate you on your Victory over your Enemies, in the Harbour. This has long lain near my Heart, and it gives me great Pleasure to think that what was so much wished, is accomplished.

I hope our People will now make the Lower Harbour, impregnable, and never again suffer the Flagg of a Tyrant to fly, within any Part of it.

The Congress have been pleased to give me more Business than I am qualified for, and more than I fear, I can go through, with safety to my Health. They have established a Board of War and Ordinance and made me President of it, an Honour to which I never aspired, a Trust to which I feel my self vastly unequal. But I am determined to do as well as I can and make Industry supply, in some degree the Place of Abilities and Experience. The Board sits, every Morning and every Evening. This, with Constant Attendance in Congress, will so entirely engross my Time, that I fear, I shall not be able to write you, so often as I have. But I will steal Time to write to you. **

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Hello, all! My apologies for the long gap between posts, but I had a very busy, out-of-town weekend that wasn’t quite conducive to internet time. However, I am here to announce an upcoming exhibit soon to be installed here at the museum, which will focus on the musical instrument known as the dulcimer.

You may ask, “What is a dulcimer?” This is a perfectly reasonable question, considering that, since the late 19th century, the use of instruments such as the fiddle and banjo has become far more common in music reminiscent of Appalachian folk tunes. However, during the 18th and most of the 19th century, the dulcimer was the second most popular instrument in Virginia apart from the banjo. Put the two instruments together, and the result can be some pretty incredible, folksy tunes.

Originally a commoners’ instrument brought into the area in the 1700s by mostly German immigrants filtering through the Blue Ridge from ports in Pennsylvania and Maryland, the dulcimer had developed new characteristics within the next century that made it into a truly American instrument. It began as a very straight, plain instrument consisting of a long, straight-sided sound box with no fretboard for the strings and was known as a “scheitholt,” which is German for “firewood” (likely a reference to the simplistic construction). As communities formed within the Blue Ridge region (mostly German-centered), evidence of early dulcimer-makers is apparent from early on during settlement. The new versions of the dulcimer created here boasted curved sides and a prominent fretboard with no “neck,” unlike the fiddle; thus, the instrument was best played resting on the lap. It was at this point in time that these new generations of Virginians re-named the instrument the “dulcimer.”

“The first known written reference to a dulcimer in Virginia appears in the Shenandoah County will book for 1812. There, documents related to the estate of Godfrey Wilkins, a gunsmith, list one dulcimer, which was purchased by a Conrad Garrett at Wilkins’s estate sale in 1813.2 The next two Virginia references to dulcimers appear in wills and inventories of 1818, this time further south on the east side of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Bedford County and Franklin County.3 Both areas attracted a substantial number of German settlers. Curiously, however, while dulcimer-family instruments were not part of the folk tradition of the British Isles, the two 1818 instruments were owned by families with English surnames; how they acquired the dulcimers and what types of music were being played on them has yet to be determined. After 1818, at least one listing of a dulcimer appears in western Virginia court documents every year through 1850.

The earliest documented dulcimer maker in Virginia was gunsmith Jacob Hanshew of Wythe (now Bland) County. His 1834 estate included “1 set of dulcimore tools” (the only historical reference to such items discovered so far), along with blacksmithing and coopering tools.4 Not surprisingly, his surname is German, as were those of other Wythe County dulcimer owners between 1827 and the 1850s: local potters Felix and Abraham Buck owned dulcimers; cabinet- and dower chest makers Jacob Spangler, John Huddle, Peter Huddle, and Gideon Huddle did too; and so did a number of families with ties to “Wild Turkey” fraktur and relief-carved headstones in German-affiliated burying yards.” **

So, come one and come all to our grand opening of “The Virginia Dulcimer,” taking place on Friday, June 27th at 7:00 pm here at the History Museum of Western Virginia! There will be plenty of beautiful dulcimers to feast your eyes upon, and you’ll have the perfect chance to explore a huge portion of this region’s unique culture. Some of the dulcimers even date back to the 1800s, as we well also display John Scales’ 1832 Floyd County dulcimer, the oldest signed-and-dated dulcimer known in the United States. Its origin date is August 28, 1832, so we’ll be celebrating its 182nd birthday in just a couple months — do not pass up this wonderful opportunity!

“In 1832 in Floyd County, Virginia-amid farmers of German, English, and Scots-Irish descent- John Scales, a cabinetmaker of British ancestry, built a curve-sided dulcimer with a raised fretboard (Fig. 10). The Scales instrument is the oldest signed-and-dated “American” style dulcimer currently known, and thus, also the earliest in the teardrop shape that came to be identified as the Virginia dulcimer. It is possible that Scales was the first to make such a dulcimer, but it is also possible that he copied one or more instruments he had seen and that an Americanized dulcimer form had developed earlier than 1832. Unlike the straight sides of the scheitholt, each side of the Virginia dulcimer follows a long curve from head to tailpiece. The Virginia form eventually carried over into Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, West Virginia, Ohio, and perhaps further west, but it is found more often in Virginia than in any other state. A few old but undated hybrid instruments have also been found in Virginia with features somewhere between the scheitholt and the Virginia dulcimer. Regardless, in multiple designs the dulcimer was definitely spicing up the nation’s growing musical melting pot in Virginia by the 1830s.” **

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On this day in 1775, the Revolutionary colonists and the British engaged each other in what would be called the Battle of Bunker Hill. The Boston-overlooking Charlestown Peninsula and Dorchester Heights in Massachusetts lay abandoned at this period in time, due to the fact that the colonial militiamen had moved their numbers outward to encircle the countryside near Lexington and Concord to prevent more British attacks on the area. Because key areas so near to Boston were virtually undefended, General Gage, along with British military leaders William Howe, Henry Clinton, and John Burgoyne planned a maneuver to capture these areas for themselves while the colonists were occupied. By doing this, General Gage hoped to make the British “the masters of these heights.”

(General Thomas Gage, left, and General William Howe, right).

This new intelligence spread to the side of the colonists and reached the ear of Adam Ward, the Massachusetts Committee of Safety Orders General. Armed with this information, General Ward instructed Colonel William Prescott to gather a force of one thousand colonial militiamen in order to beat the British to the Peninsula, fortify the elevated ground at Bunker Hill, and prevent British control of the Boston area. Ultimately, Colonel Prescott and his men arrived at Charlestown Peninsula, but made the decision to bypass Bunker Hill in lieu of an area known as Breed’s Hill, situated further south and within cannon range of Boston and its harbor. Prescott’s men toiled hard through the night in order to erect 160-foot-long fort made of earth at the top of the hill — its fortified walls rose up to 30 feet high, complete with a rail fence.

(Statue of Colonel William Prescott).

When the British soldiers awoke on the morning of June 17th, they were unpleasantly shocked to find the colonial fortifications standing in their way upon the hill. The British lay on the attack, but Colonel Prescott encouraged the men to continue working and reportedly walked the bulwarks of the fort to raise the morale of the untrained men. As two thousand British troops arrived in the Charlestown harbor and launched shells at the town, more British troops attempted to advance uphill on Prescott’s troops. The colonial militia had the upper hand as they held the higher ground and the British troops struggled uphill, hindered by the newly-built fences, uneven earth, and excessively tall grass. It is at this point in time that Colonel Prescott’s famous line, “Hold your fire until you see the whites of their eyes,” was uttered; the British approached within 150 feet of the wall when the colonists opened fire. At this range, the deadliness of the gunfire was severe and the British recoiled. General Howe quickly ordered his stunned troops to regroup and attempt a second charge, this time with more caution. Yet again, colonial bullets soared into the British ranks and decimated the numbers for a second time.

After the remainder of the British troops regrouped from the defeat of the first two charges, General Howe received reinforcements of about 400 British troops from Boston and ordered a third attack with hopes that the new addition of men would tip the scales in British favor. Once again, a charge was led on Prescott’s fort, and, again, the colonial militia waited for their enemy to draw near before they opened fire. This time, the British were slightly refreshed by their new men and the colonists were running short on ammunition from the first two attacks, resulting in a British overrun of the fort and exchange of hand-to-hand combat and the use of musket butts and rocks as weapons. However, this type was combat was not enough — Colonel Prescott’s remaining men were forced to retreat from the fort and into the town of Cambridge, where colonial troops from New Hampshire attempted to cover their flanks. The colonial militia suffered 140 causalities, 271 wounded men, and the loss of the upper ground near Bunker Hill and Boston. However, despite the establishment of British control in Charlestown, the British military had suffered twice as many casualties as the colonists and just over three times the amount of wounded men.

>> Battle of Bunker Hill: Legacy

“The British had won the so-called Battle of Bunker Hill, and Breed’s Hill and the Charlestown Peninsula fell firmly under British control. Despite losing their strategic positions, the battle was a significant morale-builder for the inexperienced Americans, convincing them that patriotic dedication could overcome superior British military might. Additionally, the high price of victory at the Battle of Bunker Hill made the British realize that the war with the colonies would be long, tough and costly.”

And, for your younger ones, here is a link to a personal favorite video of mine from my childhood: Schoolhouse Rock’s song, “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World.” Although it is a very cursory overview of the Revolutionary War, there is a section around the middle with a nod to the very important engagement near Bunker Hill. It is a beloved song of mine and my old elementary school peers’!

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On this day in 1776, the Virginia Convention met in Williamsburg to vote upon George Mason’s newly-drafted Declaration of Rights. This document was modeled upon the English Bill of Rights (1689), but notably abolished the English notion of hereditary privilege. Many Virginian men voting upon the legislation were, in fact, the younger sons of British nobility; therefore, they were not the inheritors of their fathers’ estates or the majority of the family fortune. In this new Declaration of Rights, this practice was blatantly abolished in Article 4. The whole of the declaration reads as follows:

A DECLARATION OF RIGHTS made by the representatives of the good people of Virginia, assembled in full and free Convention, which rights do pertain to them, and their posterity, as the basis and foundation of government.

THAT all men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

That all power is vested in, and consequently derived from, the people; that magistrates are their trustees and servants, and at all times amenable to them.

That government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the people, nation, or community; of all the various modes and forms of government that is best, which is capable of producing the greatest degree of happiness and safety, and is most effectually secured against the danger of mal-administration; and that whenever any government shall be found inadequate or contrary to these purposes, a majority of the community hath an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right, to reform, alter, or abolish it, in such manner as shall be judged most conducive to the publick weal.

That no man, or set of men, are entitled to exclusive or separate emoluments or privileges from the community, but in consideration of publick services; which, not being descendible, neither ought the offices of magistrate, legislator, or judge, to be hereditary.

That the legislative and executive powers of the state should be separate and distinct from the judicative; and, that the members of the two first may be restrained from oppression, by feeling and participating the burthens of the people, they should, at fixed periods, be reduced to a private station, return into that body from which they were originally taken, and the vacancies be supplied by frequent, certain, and regular elections, in which all, or any part of the former members, to be again eligible, or ineligible, as the laws shall direct.

That elections of members to serve as representatives of the people, in assembly, ought to be free; and that all men, having sufficient evidence of permanent common interest with, and attachment to, the community have the right of suffrage, and cannot be taxed or deprived of their property for publick uses without their own consent, or that of their representatives so elected, nor bound by any law to which they have not, in like manner, assented, for the publick good.

That all power of suspending laws, or the execution of laws, by any authority without consent of the representatives of the people, is injurious to their rights, and ought not to be exercised.

That in all capital or criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, to call for evidence in his favour, and to a speedy trial by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty, nor can he be compelled to give evidence against himself; that no man be deprived of his liberty except by the law of the land, or the judgement of his peers.

That general warrants, whereby any officer or messenger may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of a fact committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, or whose offence is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are grievous and oppressive, and ought not to be granted.

That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, the ancient trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred.

That the freedom of the press is one of the greatest bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotick governments.

That a well regulated militia, composed of the body of the people, trained to arms, is the proper, natural, and safe defence of a free state; that standing armies, in time of peace, should be avoided, as dangerous to liberty; and that, in all cases, the military should be under strict subordination to, and be governed by, the civil power.

That the people have a right to uniform government; and therefore, that no government separate from, or independent of, the government of Virginia, ought to be erected or established within the limits thereof.

That no free government, or the blessings of liberty, can be preserved to any people but by a firm adherence to justice, moderation, temperance, frugality, and virtue, and by frequent recurrence to fundamental principles.

That religion, or the duty which we owe to our CREATOR and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience; and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity towards each other.

This historic Declaration of Rights was passed by a unanimous vote of the Convention, and would later serve as a model for the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

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On June 11th, 1776, the Continental Congress appointed five men to begin a draft of the hopeful nation’s Declaration of Independence. These men were Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, and Robert Livingston of New York. As most of us know, Thomas Jefferson was the member of this committee who was urged to pen the draft himself, as he was well-known for his writing abilities.

This draft would be read and revised by the other members of the committee once Jefferson was finished. The committee approved document began with these words:

“When, in the Course of human Events, it becomes necessary for one People to dissolve the Political Bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the Earth, the separate and equal Station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent Respect to the Opinions of Mankind requires that they should declare the Causes which impel them to the Separation.

We hold these Truths to be self-evident that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their Creator, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

Although the document would eventually undergo about forty-seven alterations including three more full paragraphs, these are some of the most outstanding statements that students of American history can identify as solid foundations in our country’s value system, even today. Thomas Jefferson had spent several days in private, apart from the committee, in order to choose the right words for such an important document. The result was the beginning of a fledgling nation with many high hopes and long-term goals for the maintenance of a free and self-governing legacy.

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Hello all! In anticipation of these steamy summer months and the anticipation for our next national holiday, Independence Day, I thought that it would be nice to do a small series of posts highlighting important moments in our country’s climb to independence from Britain a couple hundred years ago. We huff, puff, and sweat as we go about our daily lives, and whether we be wearing a sport coat and tie or a bathing suit in the sand, we can always think back to remember how we learned of the stuffy, buggy summer days of which we learned in school when our Founding Fathers attempted to create a nation without the healing powers of air conditioning. So, in honor of these woolen-coated men who boiled in the sun and heat of the 18th-19th century to found a nation that we all hold near and dear to our hearts, I will be highlighting their achievements on the days leading up to America’s independence and beyond as we gained our footing in the big bad world.

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Here is a link to a March 2013 article in the Salem Times-Register that introduces Marian McConnell, an author/landowner/caver whose book, “Murder Hole,” concerns the legendary cave known as the “Catawba Murder Hole.” She and her husband have owned the Murder Hole property for twenty years now (with their home built in sight of the cave), and she is sure to regale listeners with some of her experiences over the years being the owner of a site with such an ominous title — join us at 7:00 PM on Thursday, June 13th to share in the experience! Free for members, and $8 for non-members.

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On my first day as a summer intern at HMWV, another intern and I were given notepads and instructed to peruse the Migrations at the Crossroads of History exhibit and take down notes on anything that caught our eye — things that we liked about the exhibit, things that we might have done differently if we had been in charge of putting it together, and anything in between. The exhibit is wonderful, and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. We reached the American Revolution section of the exhibit, which highlighted prominent Virginian men of the time period, including names such as Andrew Lewis and William Fleming. In one of the display cases, an open book perched over what looked to be a medicine kit caught our eyes.

We leaned closer to examine the face of the page that was being displayed. The illustration on the yellowing page portrayed a small group of men, one of whom was sitting in a chair with his arm outstretched as another man held it straight. Another man stood over them, poised over the seated man’s arm with a saw in his hand. A figure above this illustration showed two stages of a human leg: one fully intact, and the other sawed in half with a hand demonstrating how to deal with the open wound. “Yikes,” we thought, “How about that kind of surgery?”

(Image by Google).

This thought got us wondering: To whom did the book(s) and medical kit belong, and why did he need them? We wanted to know the story behind them, so I took the opportunity to do some searching. Using the vast internet search engine prowess and museum software that we have at our disposal, I did some effective and informative digging. I investigated the spine of the book, upon which I could just barely make out the words “Van Swieten” and “Boerhaave.” These seemed to be obviously foreign names to me, which piqued my curiosity further since I assumed the books belonged to an American from the exhibit. I searched the two names on an internet database and was quickly rewarded with results matching my query.

(Images by Google).

“Van Swieten” (left image) referred fully to Gerard Van Swieten (1700-1772), a Dutch-Austrian physician and pupil of (right image) Dutch botanist/humanist/physician Herman Boerhaave (1668-1738). Boerhaave is often still regarded as the founder of clinical teaching and the modern academic hospital, and whose motto was “Simplicity is the sign of truth.” He attended the University of Leiden, and his presence/contributions to the school greatly enhanced its reputation as a medical school. His pupil, Van Swieten, was a rigorous reformer and a great proponent of the study of literature by scientific and rational means. In keeping with this theme, his penchant for rationality prompted his research on the existence of vampires (that’s right, vampires) in Moravia in response to reports and “sightings.” His conclusion, titled Abhandlung des Daseyns der Gespenster (“Discourse on the Existence of Ghosts”), concluded that the public fear of supernatural beings was ultimately mere superstition and called it “barbarism of ignorance.” Indeed, the humanist movement which included men such as his mentor, Boerhaave, emerged parallel to a rapidly-growing interest in the sciences and rational thinking — it comes as no surprise that men such as Van Swieten in the fields of science and medicine began to condemn the “superstitions” of an earlier medieval age, keeping in step with the changing times.

I opened the museum’s collections database in order to find a clue as to who might have been the owner of a book filled with the knowledge of Van Swieten and Boerhaave. In surprisingly quick time, I found an entry on a collection of books with the subject label “Medical profession” and a description that credited the books under the ownership of William Fleming, one of the figures featured in the Revolution section of the exhibit. Exhilarated with my find, I leafed through the photographs that the database held of the books — sure enough, they were the same books as the ones on display. I discovered that the original volumes of the two foreign scholars’ instruction were originally published in Latin, causing me to wonder whether I actually had the correct texts in mind; however, I discovered (via “Treasures of the Rare Book Room” from the University of Pittsburgh’s online Health Sciences Library System) that English versions of the text titled “The Diseases Incident to Armies: With the Method of Cure” were published in London in 1762 and by Philadelphia publisher Robert Bell in 1776. Accordingly, I decided to conclude my quest for knowledge by confirming the characteristics of William Fleming that might have led to his need for such literature.

(Images by Google).

William Fleming (1729-1795) was a physician, soldier, statesman, and planter who served briefly as the third governor of Virginia during the American Revolution. He was born in Scotland and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh before he joined the Royal Navy and served as a surgeon’s mate. After emigrating to Virginia, he was commissioned into George Washington’s Virginia Regiment and served as a surgeon in conflicts such as the French and Indian War and the Anglo-Cherokee Wars. In the years from 1763-68, Fleming settled in Staunton with his medical practice, and, following those years, he extended his hand into the field of farming as well at his estate, Belmont. As stated in the American roadway history image above, Dr. Fleming also served as commander of the Botetourt Regiment, Commissioner for Kentucky, member of the Continental Congress, Botetourt County representative to the 1788 Virginia ratifying convention for the United States Constitution, and even Acting Governor of the state for a time.

After reading about Dr. Fleming’s background and learning of his profession as such a prominent surgeon, both in the military and his years beyond, I was sufficiently satisfied with the information I had dug up simply by taking a good look at the exhibit display case and connecting the threads of subsequent research. It also turned out that the medical kit propped beneath the book belonged to Fleming as well. I advise anyone to try their hand at spontaneous research when something piques their interest — you never know what sense of gratification you may find in the result!

Come out and see our unique, Roanoke area-centered exhibit, Migrations at the Crossroads of History, to get a closer look at Dr. Fleming’s medical supplies and countless other fascinating artifacts that belonged to Virginians of the past — you might be surprised at what you find.

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Thursday’s guest lecturer, Reverend Paul Huddle, transfixed his audience with sometimes sad, sometimes hilarious, and always colorful tales of his work as a Lutheran missionary on four different continents and many, many different countries. He regaled us with his extensive time in Japan and the study of the Japanese language, the story of the birth of his son (now a chemistry professor at Roanoke College, no less!) on a mountaintop in India, and the great demand of several European countries for a Lutheran service in the ENGLISH language… for which Rev. Huddle was their man. Provided with excellent box lunches from the lovely rescue mission restaurant, 2nd Helpings, our guests had their days considerably brightened with good food and good company — keep your eyes open for any upcoming guest lecturers at the History Museum of Western Virginia!

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In this 2013 online issue of The Virginia Lutheran, the first article on the page provides a sneak peek into the life of Rev. Paul Huddle, who has served as a missionary in many different countries over many past decades. He will recount the details of some of his travels, which have been extensive — in 1941, the Huddles were the last missionaries to arrive in Japan before the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Attend Rev. Huddle’s lecture beginning at 12:00 pm tomorrow (June 5th, 2014) to learn more!